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Professional PowerPoint Slides Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

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Page 1: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Professional PowerPoint Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides

Page 2: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Tips to be Covered Outlines

Slide Structure

Fonts

Colour

Background

Graphs

Spelling and Grammar

Conclusions

Questions

Page 3: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Outline

Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your presentation (such as the previous slide)

Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the presentation

Only place main points on the outline slide

Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points

Page 4: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Slide Structure – Good

Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation

Write in point form, not complete sentences

Include 2-4 points per slide

Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only

Page 5: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Slide Structure - Bad

This page contains too many words for a presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.

Page 6: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Slide Structure – Good

Show the entire slide at one time:

Will help you keep your presentation focused

If you have several bullets on the slide, you won’t have to click the mouse for each bullet

Page 7: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Slide Structure - Bad

Do not use distracting animation

Do not go overboard with the animation

Be consistent with the animation that you use

Page 8: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Fonts - Good

Use at least a 20-point font

Use different size fonts for main points and secondary points

this font is 24-point, the main point font is 26-point, and the title font is 50-point

Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial

Page 9: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Fonts - Bad

If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT’S DIFFICULT TO READ AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE YELLING

Don’t use a complicated font

Page 10: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Colour - Good Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with the

background

Ex: blue font on white background

Use colour to reinforce the logic of your structure

Ex: light blue title and dark blue text

Use colour to emphasize a point

But only use this occasionally

Page 11: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Colour - Bad

Using a font colour that does not contrast with the background colour is hard to read

Using colour for decoration is distracting and annoying.

Using a different colour for each point is unnecessary Using a different colour for secondary points is also

unnecessary

Trying to be creative can also be bad

Page 12: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Background - Good

Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive but simple

Use backgrounds which are light

Use the same background consistently throughout your presentation

Page 13: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Background – Bad Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to

read from

Always be consistent with the background that you use

Page 14: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Graphs - Good

Use graphs rather than just charts and words

Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain than is raw data

Trends are easier to visualize in graph form

Always title your graphs

Page 15: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Graphs - Bad

January February March April

Pepsi 20.4 27.4 90 20.4

Coca-Cola 30.6 38.6 34.6 31.6

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Graphs - Bad

20.4

27.4

90

20.4

30.6

38.6

34.6

31.6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

January February March April

Minor gridlines are unnecessary

Font is too small

Colours are illogical

Title is missing

Shading is distracting

Page 17: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Graphs - Good

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

January February March April

Items Sold in First Quarter of 2010

Blue = Pepsi

Red = Coke

Page 18: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Spelling and Grammar Proof your slides for:

speling mistakes

the use of of repeated words

grammatical errors you might have make

Nuthin’ iz werse then reeedin a bnch of stuph that ain’t bean spellll chexed or ain’t been read by nowone

NO chat lingo (2, 4, U, BTW, etc….)‏

To use spell check in this program, go to ....Tools….Spelling

Page 19: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Images

Try to avoid using clip art…it looks cheap

Use pictures to convey your point

Use one per slide

vs.

Page 20: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Conclusion

Use an effective and strong closing

Your audience is likely to remember your last words

Use a conclusion slide to:

Summarize the main points of your presentation

Suggest future avenues of research

Page 21: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Questions??

End your presentation with a simple question slide to:

Invite your audience to ask questions

Provide a visual aid during question period

Page 22: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slidesmscornish.weebly.com/uploads/5/0/6/9/5069262/avoiding_the_pitfall… · Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides. Tips to be Covered Outlines Slide Structure

Thank you

Avoid ending a presentation abruptly (do not say “That’s it”…say “Thank you”)